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Clothes press
chippendale, born 1718 - died 1779 - Enlarge image
Clothes press
- Place of origin:
London, England (made)
- Date:
1775-1778 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
chippendale, born 1718 - died 1779 (maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
Japanned (painted) pine
- Credit Line:
Acquired through the generosity of H. E. Trevor, Esq., with the co-operation of some admirers of David Garrick
- Museum number:
W.22:1 to 8-1917
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 118a, case 1
Object Type
This clothes press is divided vertically into two sections closed by hinged doors. The left side is fitted with shelves and the right with a shallow hanging cupboard. A door in the side conceals a set of drawers and a secret drawer. It was designed for a particular location in the room so that the side door was accessible.
Place
This clothes press and its pair are listed in the inventory of the contents of David Garrick's villa at Hampton, Middlesex (now south-west London) in 1779. Other pieces supplied by Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779) included a dressing table (now at Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire), a pair of cabinet bookcases, a corner cupboard and a bed. They were in the dressing room.
David and Eva Garrick acquired their riverside retreat at Hampton in 1754. The existing villa was improved by Robert Adam (1728-1792) and the grounds were laid out by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, which included a domed temple containing a statue of William Shakespeare by Louis Fran‡ois Roubiliac (1702-1762). The villa's interiors were furnished by Chippendale from 1768 to 1778 with painted furniture in a Chinoiserie style.
Ownership & Use
In 1778 Mrs Garrick complained to Chippendale in a letter that the green and white bedroom furniture was overpriced. She wrote that the decoration cost twice as much as the furniture itself. This suggests that the furniture was ordered before 1775 but decorated after 1775, when the Indian chintz bedhangings had arrived safely.
